The only two Indian-American delegates representing the host state of Colorado at the Democratic National Convention--the mother-daughter combination of Mona and Monisha Merchant, both Hillary Clinton [Images] delegates -- have said they will heed Clinton's impassioned plea to help elect Barack Obama [Images] to the White House.

Though they acknowledged they were part of the thousands of embittered Clinton supporters who believed she should have garnered the nomination, the Merchants told rediff.com that in the final analysis, as Clinton had said Tuesday night in an electrifying speech, what was now important was to ensure that the Democrats took back the White House because as in Clinton's words, 'We don't need four more years of the last eight years."

Clinton in her speech, where she endorsed Obama at the outset, said, "It is time to take back the country we love. And whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose."

"We are on the same team and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines," she said. "This is a fight for the future and it is a fight we must win together. No way, no how, no McCain," she said to rousing cheers. "Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our President."

Mona said, "Hillary was being a very good, party person and she's always been a leader and if this is what she feels and what we need to do, that is what we'll do."

However, she said in the first ballot she would vote for Clinton and once they are released to Obama, she would naturally work for that ticket.

"I ran at the state level as a party leader and elected official and I got elected and got the highest number of votes and they were close to 500 plus voters, and all these people have asked me if I am going to be representing them. I gave them my word," Mona said. "So, in the first ballot, I will definitely vote for Hillary in spite of the fact that she is going to be releasing us, and once Obama is our candidate, I am going to work on that ticket�Obama-Biden all the way."

She said that she would do so because "I agree with Hillary that the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose."

Mona, a retired professor acknowledged that it was certainly "extremely emotion, extremely personal," and said, "the media always talks about how many new people Senator Obama brought into the fold this year."

"I worked on the campaign, I was regional field director and I know how many new people Hillary brought into this campaign. So, both of them need to be given due credit and there are women who have said this is the first time they even got involved and they say Mona and Monisha brought us into the system. And, it's ironic that me, Mona, I was not even born here."

While some Clinton supporters, apparently remained angry and were still not reconciled to voting for Obama or supporting his campaign, Mona said, "Some of them are changing in the sense that they realize what's at stake."

Denver born and raised daughter Monisha, also said, "I am a life-long Democrat and I have gone through this every single election. We have a candidate and then maybe another candidate becomes your nominee, but once we have a nominee, I am behind the ticket 110 percent."

"Because, yes, our number one priority is to get a Democrat into the White House and to get a stronger Democratic majority in the White House," she said.

Text: Aziz Haniffa in Denver, Colorado

Image: Mona and Monisha Merchant; Photograph: Paresh Gandhi